INTIMACY
A PENTECOSTAL MODEL
“But he that lacketh
these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was
purged from his old sins.”
2 Peter 1:9
“…perhaps
the greatest obstacle to a proper understanding of the church is the tendency
to absolutize one historical form or one particular image or model of the
church. The gospel of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ is always greater
than our theologies, including our theologies of the church. When the church keeps its eyes on Christ and
remains open to the Holy Spirit, it is in touch with the one necessary power of
continuous reform and renewal of ecclesial life.”
(Daniel
L. Migliore)
This
statement by Milgliore grabbed me the deepest of all in chapter 11 of his
book.
-I’M GOING BACK
TO CALVARY-
With what little I have learned of
theologies the doctrines of men and all that is concerning them
The greatest thing I’ve ever learned is
Jesus died for me and by His blood I know I am free
I am going back to Calvary – I don’t want
to be too far from the tree where Jesus bled and He died for me – I’m going
back to Calvary –
The most common ground in Christianity is
on the cross where Jesus died for you and me
Our enmities started on
a tree in the garden and it will end on a tree at Calvary
I am going back to Calvary – I don’t want
to be too far from the tree where Jesus bled and He died for me – I’m going
back to Calvary –
Song Written by Joseph Robinson
As I see it, nothing can take the
place of intimacy with God. This is where ecclesiology has its
foundation, it is from here that it begins and it is from here that all its
efforts come back to. Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build my church…” (Matthew 16:18). It is upon the foundational ground
that Peter knew who Jesus was and even more so that Jesus knew who Peter was;
this becomes the foundation that all things are built upon concerning
ecclesiology (2 Timothy 2;19; 1 Corinthians 8:3).
“He
went in and knew her.” This is a
biblical term for intimacy between a man and a woman. It simply means, in knowing each other, they
intimately own each other (1 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 5:31). When we as the
church marry what we a doing and become more intimate with our mission than we
do God, then what we are doing becomes more important than God.
This was the case with those Jesus
spoke of: “Many will say to me in that
day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name cast out devils? And in thy name done
many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew
7:22-23) [Emphases added].
I was at a funeral in the country
the other day. A ninety year old man walked up to me at the grave site. I did not know him; he gave no greetings,
just spoke this to me: “I have come to know that if I am friendly and open to
God, He is willing to be friendly and open to me.”
Sometimes we get too busy trying to
complete an agenda that we miss relationships that can become greater than our
mission; what these relationships can offer is lost in our self-interest and
self-centeredness. This is the case with
iniquity driven ministries, although they may be full of good intentions;
unless our ministries and ways of doing things are not flowing out of intimacy
with God, it is our goodness leading us rather than God.
This is no deep theology or some
knew thought concerning ecclesiology; nonetheless, it is simple truth and when
lived out, it is called “being led by the Spirit.” Now that is Pentecostal in nature. As Dr.
Gause said, “Pentecostal is Christianity and Christianity is Pentecostal.”
This was the model of the New
Testament Church as I see it. They were
simply led by the Spirit to go places and to do certain things in the places
where they found themselves. This was the case with Philip in Samaria (Acts
8:5-25), and this was the case with Paul concerning Macedonia (Acts 16:9-10).
As far as that goes, that was the case with the “acts of the apostles” in the
whole book of Acts.
As I read Milgliore’s “Critique of
Current Models of the Church” it was as though I was reading something similar
to Jesus talking to the seven churches of Asia.
He would point out the positives then he would point out the negatives,
then he came to the conclusion I recorded above as what grabbed me the deepest.
We become blind and cannot see afar
off (prophetically) when we lose the gratefulness and the value of intimacy
found in the shed blood of Jesus. I was broken down and tore up from the floor
up when Jesus reach down with His great mercy and put His love all over me and
inside me. If I in my living should walk away from that point of reference, I
have moved away from the source that drives me as a believer; my eyes are taken
off of the sweetness of His grace and cannot see the opportunities standing
right in front of me.
As I stood out in the middle of the
land of Ur serving my country with the 82nd Airborne Division during
the Desert Storm Gulf War, there was this old sheep herdsmen out in the middle
of no-where walked up to me. The way he
was clothed, he looked like somebody walking out of the
Bible.
His face was deeply wrinkled from
the years of desert life. As he looked
into my eyes, I saw wisdom of a kind I have never witnessed before; I knew that
old man knew more than I ever thought I could know. About that time, with
curiosity, he reaches out his hand and takes one of the buttons on my shirt and
looked at it with amazement. Evidently, he had never seen a button. He could
not speak my language and I could not speak his. However, as we stood there and encountered
each other, somehow, we understood each other.
Why am I saying this? What does this
have to do with ecclesiology? I did a
little sign language for prayer, and the old man closed his eyes and bowed his
head and let me pray for him. When done
praying, he smiled at me and walked away into the desert with his sheep.
We are the church wherever we
are. I shared a prayer and the old man
received it; we were from different cultures and whatever else was different
did not matter, we gave friendship and relationship to each other.
This was what Abraham and
Melchisedec gave each other, and from that premise a relationship was fostered
into something that God was a part of.
When the Bible is living inside of us; when God is living inside of us,
we do not need a script telling us what to do.
The life of God is in us and is capable out of intimacy to accomplish
anything that needs to be accomplished (Mark 16:20).
One may ask, if that is all you need
to be the church anywhere, then why are you in seminary? I am massaging that
intimacy I have with God. The Spirit and
the Word are the agents that inspire us and lead us into being the Body of
Christ on this planet.
One of the things I have noticed in
the study of soteriology was that everything in salvation was dynamic in
nature. If I understand correctly what Milgliore is saying in his statement
above concerning ecclesiology, the life and mission of the church is also
dynamic in nature.
This does not surprise me; the
reason being, if the life of God in us is dynamic in nature, then I am thinking
we as the church will be dynamic in nature as well, and as we evolve and come
closer to the end (eschatology) we will always need to shape ourselves
according to what the Spirit is leading us to do and be.
This is even so with our revelation
concerning doctrine. For example, in the
beatitude discourse Jesus gave, He went into saying over and over, “You have
heard it said, but I say unto you.” Here Jesus was teaching us that our
understanding and revelation should not become static, but also must be dynamic
in nature.
Therefore, my reflection concerning
ecclesiology is that if we keep our intimacy open and friendly to God, then God
will keep Himself open and friendly to us.
John the beloved said in his writings that we were to remember the
things from our beginning (1 John 1:1-40). I conclude that there is something
in what God does in us at the beginning that we need to take with us through to
the end.
I believe “that something” has to do
with intimacy; we need to cultivate it and keep it fresh. The life of the
church depends upon it regardless of what portion of theology we may be working
through. We, being the church need to
hear from God. I am a proponent of
educating ourselves, this is why I am in this seminary; however, there is no
knowledge, no brain large enough to take the place of intimacy with God.
This takes that deep gratefulness,
respect, and honor for the gift of salvation that God has given us. If we fail
to keep it fresh, our models for the church will become molded and as rotten as
the manna did in the wilderness. Give us
“this day” our “daily” bread.
